Website-Relaunch 2025: reaching the final page?

If you only look at the really big changes, then it is the fourth version of our website, also from a technical point of view.

Website Relaunch 2025 – some background info

Unlike all previous website versions, we had to build the current version in a way that allowed us to incorporate all content from the last version. A cold start (starting from scratch and manually updating everything), as with all our major relaunch projects before, was not possible due to the sheer volume of content. We have accumulated well over 2,000 articles and news items that we wanted to present on the new site as well. On our German website, it was even more.

This became necessary because our old system had aged, and we’ve essentially been limping along since 2017, as it was technically vulnerable and had small and larger problems in many areas. But such a project requires time and care, so we (as in 2008) sought help from Christian’s (one of the editors) brother Armin. Without this assistance, the project would simply not have been possible. We are infinitely grateful for his commitment during his free time.

At the beginning of 2024, the pressure increased significantly, and the transition to WordPress was forced, not without some “pain,” because naturally, for a site of our size, there are many things to consider, and time to deal with them on the new, living object became scarce. We did relaunch the German version of our site half a year ago already, and then carried on working on the front- end backend. Since then, we did not update the “old” English website as much as we did before (although all important news were updated) and a couple of bigger features had to wait. Quite a few have for example asked when the Phil Collins Recording Compendium will be updated … this is one example.

The new site is Version 1.0 – a basis for further development

Accordingly, we cannot and do not want to see the now available site as the end of the line, but rather as a “river of constant change.” We see it more as a new house that we have functionally moved into and in which we can live, but which needs new coats of paint in many places and perhaps a different room layout here and there. We are also continuing to work on the foundation and the access to the rooms and how they are labeled. In short: There will be much more to come in the future, without the newly gained advantages of the technical foundation losing importance. Some of this has already been integrated in our German site and is already available here.

The website should now be easily readable and navigable on all devices. In principle, we have adopted the structure of the old site. The forum will also be redesigned and adapted to the main site’s look – so you’ll have to get used to a new color scheme as well.

What’s different?

On the homepage, you’ll find a central topic as usual. There’s also a series of news items and a column listing the most recent articles per artist subcategory. The menu can be accessed via the “burger” icon and the artist logos (where available), and you can reach the forum via the community icon. The individual subcategories list the most recent articles and news, and the deeper you navigate into the menus, the more precise the listing becomes. News items are only available on the front oage and in the artist overviews.

On mobile pages, you’ll find a somewhat more concise presentation that essentially follows the same logic.

Is anything missing? Are there still ambiguities?

Yes. We have initially disconnected a few articles because their complexity made them untransferable to the new system or simply unreadable. Unfortunately, they produced layout and display problems. This mainly affected the Recording Compendium pages on our German site, which we have been working on rebuilding since the summer. As a result, we can offer the Anthony Phillips and Phill Collins Recording Compendium on our new site, while we are still working on the Peter Gabriel Compendium – please be patient. But the good news is: We will continue with the Collins Compendium very soon!

Additionally, some of the more than 2,000 older articles still have some layout inconsistencies here and there (font sizes, image display, italic/bold display, etc.). The old site had a fixed width of 490px for displaying articles and news. The new site is flexible – depending on the device. This naturally produces some inconsistencies, especially where tables and images were and are important. We are gradually working on harmonizing everything.

What else is planned?

In addition to many functions within the new software (from manual article sorting to comfortable gallery display), there will also be a standalone news overview page with (and this is new) convenient filter functions. Already now you can choose whether news, articles, or both should be displayed on the artist overview pages.

Besides functionality, design has always been important to us. Even though the new site principally follows the WordPress standard, we won’t stop working on familiar Genesis-related gimmicks and also fundamental visual representations and a decent layout. Wherever it makes sense and allows for an eye-catcher, we will gradually add more accents. This would, of course, be primarily interesting for the desktop site. If you’re well-versed in WordPress and would like to help us here, feel free to contact us. This mainly concerns things that go beyond normal article creation.

A larger user account function on the main site is also planned. This has been tested successfully on the German site and in principle means you only need to register in our website forum only and will then be able to access all site functions as well, whenever needed. Also, we are working on establishing a large tour database. We’ve been working on this tour database for a few years now with the help of many friends from Italy, the UK and elsewhere. With the user account functions, you can interact there, for example. However, the standard for user discussions should remain in our forum.

Why do we write “reaching the final page”?

The fan club history, like the Genesis history, is a River Of Constant Change, but with the technology behind the new website, we may indeed have opened the final chapter. The “final page” is thus a reference to the major website relaunches. This should be our last one. But we will be around for a while …

How can I give feedback or point out errors?

Anyone surfing the new site who notices major errors (beyond still untidy presentations), such as dead links or incorrect content, can contact Christian directly. Of course, we haven’t been able to work through all 2,000+ pages yet and are grateful for any hints. We have also set up an area in the forum for this, a link will be provided shortly.

We thank you for your loyalty over all these years!
The GNC Team